Month: July 2016

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Snack Recipe: Stuffed Mushroom with Protein Cheese and Sun Dried Tomatoes

We were sent a pack of Protein Cheese to try, and I first used it to make a lovely wee snack, which isn’t high in calories, nor in fat or carbs, which is always good for us diabetics, or for those watching our weight, as well as just wanting something a little different.

Protein Cheese, by eatlean, seems to be new on the market, although we had our sample for a while before I opened it.  At first, I found it a little strange-looking, as it seemed slightly translucent, but how it looks, doesn’t affect how it tastes.    With 37g protein and only 3% fat in every 100g, it’s a good option.  It’s also suitable for vegetarians, and made in the UK, using milk from the UK.  I’ve even spotted it in my local supermarket recently, so it’s becoming more well-known.

These mushrooms with cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, would even make a great tasting raw food addition as a starter or party nibble.

Mushrooms Protein Cheese 2

Each Single Mushroom Snack.

  • 32 Calories
  • 4.6g Carb
  • 0.4g Fat
  • 1.8g Protein

Stuffed Mushroom with Protein Cheese and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Lesley Smith
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 5 Mushrooms
Calories 160 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 100 g Mushrooms centre stalk removed and slightly hollowed out.
  • 3 Sun Dried Tomatoes sliced, or 25g.
  • 30 g Protein Cheese grated.

Instructions
 

  • For this, I used regular sized mushrooms, and not large ones, although the big ones would do fine too. I got 5 mushrooms for my 100g and slightly hollowed them out.

  • I used sundried tomatoes from a jar, and washed mine thoroughly before using them. I wanted all the oil off them.

  • Place some cheese in the mushrooms, then popped some sun dried tomatoes on top, before adding a few more strands of cheese on top.

  • Pop your snack into the oven around 180 degrees for 15 minutes.

 

 

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Konjac Flour: Pasta and Rice with only 8 calories per 100g… Surely not!

This is seriously my first try with those pasta and rice replacements, the Konjac Flour ones, that are mainly water.  With 8kcals per 100g of drained rice in the version I just tried, its a serious way to reduce calories for those who watch their carbs like me.   How bad could it be?    It only has 0.1g Carbohydrate per 100g.  That’s almost zero calories for a lot of food.

This is rice shaped konjac noodles, not actual rice itself.  I think I expected a more ricey texture and shape, and that’s where I failed at the outset.  The product doesn’t try to pretend it’s something that it’s not, but I did misread the label and half expected a rice like texture.  I’ve left my image until the end, in case it hits you the same way as it does me.

What are Konjac Noodles?

Well, they’ve been hailed as a dieter’s dream.   There are several brands, mostly around noodles.  barenaked rice, Zero Noodles, Slim Rice / Slim Noodles / Shirataki Noodles.   They’re all made of the same thing.  The Konjac plant is a red flower with one leaf, and a long spike, that’s grown in Asia.  Most noodles will come from and be imported from China.

It’s generally known as a starchy tuber, that is processed into glucomannan flour, which is then used to make the noodles.  The rice I have, actually looks like pasta, but far too much like squiggly little worms for my eyes to come to terms with.

Although they’ve been around in Japan for years, they’ve only recently been gaining popularity over here, and I can’t believe I’ve gone all this time without even ever hearing about them.  It all started when I spotted a pack in Sainsburys and picked them up to read the pack.  My first thought was that it was a con, and complete rubbish.   Some people know these as water noodles as they’re so high in water content, which probably explains why they actually taste of nothing until they’re mixed with other ingredients.

The generic Google bumf says these noodles are to fill us up, or to bulk out our food.   I do love pasta, and I miss it now that I rarely eat it, so finding something to replace that would be perfect, but Sainsbury didn’t have the pasta version, so the rice it had to be.

The rice/noodles contain 96 per cent water and less than 4 per cent glucomannan fibre.  I checked reviews, and there were so many positive ones, I thought I’d give it a go.  I already had my “barenaked rice,” to try them out, but wished I’d gone for the proper pasta versions and ordered online. The rice is just tiny rice sized pieces of the larger pasta versions.

There were also as much negative reviews as there were positive, so I was a little cautious from the outset.  Complaints included a fishy smell when the packet is opened, to the rubbery texture when it’s eaten.  So here goes.  I added it to a mix I make frequently for myself, with Dolmio Light Sauce and peas.

Konjac dolmio light

My Ingredients

  • 1 Pack konjac noodle rice replacement – 250g drained. (20 calories)
  • 50g Peas.
  • 200g Dolmio Light Sauce. (78 calories)
  • Salt.

My Cooking Method

Step 1

On opening the pack, the fishy smell was there.  I put my rice into a sieve and ran it under cold water for a couple of minutes, and the smell was gone.  In truth, the smell was no worse than buying fresh cod or haddock and getting it home, so it didn’t smell half as bad as the reviews said – to me – anyway.

konjac barenaked rice 2

Step 2

Cook the rice on the hob for around 8-10 minutes, with a little salt.  I didn’t want to take the chance of the fishy smell still being there.

Step 3

Sieve off the water and rinse through again.

Step 4

Return the hob, add the peas and Dolmio sauce, heat thoroughly.

Result

To be honest, it didn’t soak up the Dolmio like rice does, and it looked pretty awful in the bowl.   Eating it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but as rice, it slides down and the texture is more rubbery than rice.

It didn’t replace my rice craving, but it did fill my belly with a couple of spoonfuls.

I think the fact my dish looked more like little worms in my Dolmio put me off, and I might prefer this rice in a stir fry.  The taste wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, so I’m prepared to try it out with some different dishes, and one that doesn’t look like squiggly worms when I’m eating it.  

I couldn’t finish more than two small spoons of this, but it’s given me ideas, and I think I could tolerate it better as a proper pasta dish, where it doesn’t look off-putting in the dish.  Actually, I might not even notice it isn’t real pasta at all, as it has a similar mouth feel to pasta for me, but slightly more rubbery.

How it looked was what stopped me eating it, rather than how it tasted.  It didn’t taste terrible at all.  It took on the flavour of the Dolmio very well, so although it isn’t a true replacement for rice, it does reduce calories going into the belly.  I couldn’t cope with it as a rice replacement, but as a pasta one, I think Konjac and I will get on very well.

See what I mean below…  Little worms.  I just couldn’t…  It’d be much better in a stir fry for me I think, but if the appearance doesn’t put you off, it could be a very good bulking agent for other foods indeed.

Konjac barenaked rice featured

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Losing a bunch of weight.

Pink Tape Measure

It’s no secret to my readers that I’ve lost a bunch of weight recently, and I’d still like to lose around a stone more, but I won’t worry too much about that.  I’m still heavier than where I started at the
beginning of all this blubbery inflation, but I fit into UK Next 8 and 10 clothes mostly, with the odd 12, so I’m happy with that. I know I might not be able to keep it up, but for now, I’m in control of my weight.

What I have been most surprised about, was the amount of people who constantly ask me how I’ve done it, as if there’s some sort of magic wand around that melts fat off.  When I tell people what I’ve done, they begin to lose interest, then some even turn round and say something dumb, like,

‘no really, what else did you do?’

Or they assume that now my thyroid is in a better way, that the fat dissolved itself away.  Now I know having thyroid issues helps with weight gain etc, but losing it isn’t any easier for us than it is for the rest of you when it’s sorted out.  My thyroid being in sync now might stop me adding to weight, but it does nothing for losing what’s already there.

It’s simple really.  Just CICO.  Honestly, all other diets work on basically the same principle.  Eat less calories than you expend, and you will lose fat.   CICO is simply calories in v calories out.  I don’t believe in the real plateau either.  It’s impossible to eat more and lose weight as such.  Nobody living in a real starvation mode will retain their fat for a sustained level of time, and three or four weeks of the scales not moving, is not starvation mode.

Weight loss isn’t linear.  

Just because you eat 1200 calories a day, most people won’t lose 2lbs a week, every week, forever.  Some weeks you might lose 3lbs, some 4, then maybe some at 2lbs, a week or two here and there of half a pound, and maybe a couple of weeks gain one or two.  And boy, does it get demotivating for the scales not to move at all for nearly two months.  Yep, been there, but eventually, if you stick with it, the downward trend begins again.

The closer to goal we get, the longer it takes to shift.  It’s a journey, not a fast track to skinny blingdom.

Losing weight should be about health first, and the weight on the scale way down on the list.  In second and third place, I prefer to look at fitness, endurance and before the scale, even how my clothes fit.

That’s my view, and you’re welcome to disagree with me.   My clothes still don’t fit as well as I’d like around my midriff, and that’s why I’d like to lose a bit more fat, but on the whole, I’m happy enough with the rest of me.

You can’t outrun a bad diet?

Hmmm, well, I see this all the time on the internet, yet it’s possible that it’s completely wrong too.

Certainly, you can’t outrun a diet where you take in far more calories than you burn off by running.  And given a mile roughly equates to around 100 calories, then a fairly long run won’t even make up for a pig out session in front of the TV with a good sized pizza.

What you can do, with exercise, in increase the size of the CICO calorie deficit, which means you can eat a little more on those days.  If your daily target calorie count is around 1400, and you run for 6 miles, you could technically eat 2000 calories that day and still be in a modest deficit of calories.

Some diets are better than others.

Of course they are, but some are absolute tosh.  Any weight loss diet has to have you eating less calories than you use up in a day.  Whether you count in points, pounds, kcals or packets, it all adds up to the same.  I’m not a fad of diets that replace the calorie with a fancy name, and it isn’t any way to help someone maintain their weight when they’ve finished losing it in the first place.  If you find something healthy that works for you, then go for it.  Otherwise, learn portion control and nutritional value of foods and work it out for yourself.  I learned that I’ve spent much of my life with far too little protein.  I’ve fixed that.

There’s no easy weight loss method.

Losing weight sucks, big time, but if you’re determined and ready for it, nothing will stop you.   Good luck to anyone on a journey, and I hope you feel as good about yourself as I do for what I achieved over the last year.

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Recipe: Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding using Hamlyn’s Scottish Oatmeal

Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding 1300

Halmyns LeafletAlong with a few fellow bloggers, I had the opportunity to appear in a leaflet for the Scottish Royal Highland Show this year.

Hamlyns of Scotland, who commissioned the leaflet, kindly gave me permission to post my recipe on my blog too.  Here it is, the front cover of the leaflet, which apparently went down very well, and the recipe and images from making sticky toffee pudding with some oaty goodness in it.

I think I might even try replacing all the flour with oatmeal at my next attempt with this.  The consistency might be different, but as I love the nutty taste of oatmeal, I suspect it would go down very well here.

Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe

Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding 8 650

Ingredients

For the pudding.

  • 200g Medjool Dates, stones removed.
  • 100g Self Raising Flour.
  • 100g Hamlyns Scottish Oatmeal.Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding - Hamlyns Oatmeal 650
  • 150ml Boiling Water.
  • 2 Teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda.
  • 2 Eggs.
  • 100g Butter.
  • 2 Tablespoons Black Treacle.
  • 150g Demerara Sugar.
  • 100ml Double Cream.

For the toffee sauce.

  • 350g Golden Caster Sugar.
  • 100g Butter, cubed.
  • 500ml Double Cream.
  • 1 Tablespoon Black Treacle.

Method

For the pudding.

  1. Chop the dates into small pieces. Put them into a bowl and pour over the boiling water and set them aside.  Leave them to soak in until everything else is done.Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding - Add Dates Mashed Into Water 650
  2. Put your oven on, to around 170C/160C (Fan).
  3. In a mixing bowl, add your flour, oatmeal, bicarbonate of soda and sugar, and stir it around. Melt your butter so that it’s easy to mix in, and add it, along with your eggs and black treacle.  Mix by hand, or use a low setting on a mixer, to ensure the mix isn’t handled too roughly.  When the pudding mix looks slightly curdled, add in the double cream and fold it in by hand.  Don’t worry about the texture.  At this point, it might resemble batter more than pudding mix.  Just remember, that it isn’t a cake mix and doesn’t need lots of air added.  Using a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl is a good idea.Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding - Mix Ingredients 650
  4. Mash the dates into the water, then pour it all into the bowl with the rest of your ingredients. Again, fold in by hand.  The mix may look curdled, but it’s fine.
  5. Grease your baking tins and pour the mixture in. I used two moulds.  One traditional round pudding mould and a flat one for the family to tuck into as soon as our toffee pudding was ready.
  6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the pudding is cooked.

For the toffee sauce.

  1. In a thick bottomed pan, add the sugar and butter with around three quarters of the cream, then slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
  2. When the sugar is dissolved, add the black treacle and bring the mix to the boil, letting it bubble for a minute or two at the most.
  3. Take the sauce off the heat and beat in the remaining cream. Your mix will be a gorgeous toffee colour, and look lovely and glossy.Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding - Toffee Sauce 650

Combining the pudding and sauce.

Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding - Pour Toffee Sauce over and Leave to Soak 2 650

  1. Slide a knife or spatula around the edges of your cakes, and slide them out of the tins if possible. If a little of the cake sticks to the bottom, its fine.  Just use your spatula to scrape it out and pop it on top, then use a knife to smooth it out.  The pudding is gooey and it will repair easily and can even be slightly moulded if needed.  Toffee sauce is going on the top, and it will hide any slight imperfection.  If in doubt, wait until your pudding is cooler before attempting to remove it from the mould.
  2. Pour a little toffee sauce into the bottom of your moulds. Replace your pudding, letting it sit in the toffee sauce, then pour some more on top.  Keep aside around one third of the toffee sauce for serving.
  3. If you’ve left the pudding overnight to soak up the toffee sauce, it will be more sticky and gooey than if eaten immediately. If you want to heat the pudding up before serving, that’s fine too.
  4. Enjoy on its own, or with a little yoghurt and strawberries.

Oaty Sticky Toffee Pudding 1 650